The Lynchburg City Council on Monday voted against adopting a resolution that would bar the city registrar from administering early voting for the state’s redistricting referendum — in favor of considering a different resolution that will be up for a vote Tuesday.
The original resolution, discussed at a specially called meeting, was proposed by council member Marty Misjuns following a model championed by former Republican Del. Tim Anderson and already adopted by Spotsylvania and Patrick counties. If it had been approved, it would have ordered that “no City-owned facilities or City resources shall be made available for the conduct of early voting” on the referendum prior to April 16. It also would have likely prompted intervention from the attorney general’s office, in what Anderson called an effort to force a court decision ahead of the election.
The new resolution, proposed by council member Jacqueline Timmer, will be discussed and voted on at the council’s regularly scheduled meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday. It would direct the city attorney to file a petition for declaratory judgment in the Lynchburg Circuit Court seeking clarification of the city’s duties with respect to the referendum. The resolution would not make any demands of the city’s registrar.
“It’s phenomenal, because what we’re doing is we’re going to take a proactive approach,” Misjuns said after Monday’s meeting, where he made the motion to vote down his own proposal. “We’re actually going to take this to the court — instead of the reactive approach, which is what we would have voted on today, which would have invited the attorney general to come to us.”
The resolution was voted down 6-0, with council member Chris Faraldi absent.
At the center of the discussion is a question regarding when early voting on the referendum can commence: whether the current March 6 start date is in line with the state constitution or whether early voting should not begin until April 16. The state constitution says a ballot question cannot be submitted to voters sooner than 90 days after the General Assembly passes it, Anderson said in an interview with Cardinal News last week. The redistricting amendment passed the General Assembly on Jan. 16, setting the blackout period to last until April 16, he said. In a social media post on Feb. 17, he provided a template for a resolution for county and city boards to use to halt local registrars from administering early voting until a court rules on its constitutionality.
Localities’ efforts to adopt such resolutions come in a flurry of other actions on the redistricting front. A ruling by the Tazewell County Circuit Court sought to halt the redistricting effort, finding that it ran afoul of the state constitution. Attorney General Jay Jones appealed that ruling to the Virginia Supreme Court. A second case, also filed in Tazewell County, specifically told state officials to stop “administering, preparing for, taking any action to further the procedure for the referendum or otherwise move forward with causing an election” any time before March 18. Jones appealed that ruling, too.
The second Tazewell case evolved late last week, after Anderson pitched his resolution strategy to localities.
That backdrop leaves localities like Lynchburg, which has a 6-1 Republican majority on its city council, “in a place where we don’t know what to do,” Timmer said after Monday’s meeting adjourned.
“Do we follow the state code and the timeline that that has laid out? Do we follow with the understanding of the constitution, the timeframe that’s necessary in the constitution? Do we look to the Tazewell injunction? These are all conflicting voices that are legally relevant to how we have to act as a city,” she said. Her resolution “brings forward a question to the court and says, ‘How should we respond?’”
“This is not directing the registrar. This is asking the court what the registrar can and cannot do,” Timmer said.
Friday, Gov. Abigail Spanberger approved the proposed redrawn congressional map — which favors Democratic candidates in 10 of the commonwealth’s 11 districts — that Virginians can vote on to approve or deny this spring. Virginia Democrats have called the redistricting effort necessary, after Republican President Donald Trump called on conservative-led states to change their congressional maps in favor of GOP candidates ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Virginia Republicans have criticized move, calling it a power grab and questioning the constitutionality of the redistricting effort.
Council member Stephanie Reed said Timmer’s proposal is “a way to work together” to simultaneously help the registrar, protect Lynchburg residents’ right to vote, seek answers from the courts and stand against Democrats’ calls for redistricting.
“I just think voting is one of the most important things we get to do, and we should never make any attempt to take that from anybody. I also don’t think it’s right to change the rules when the ball is in our court, so we are standing firmly against what’s happening right now in Richmond,” she said at Monday’s meeting.
The vote to scrap Misjuns’ resolution came after an hour-long closed session in which the city council consulted with legal counsel about the resolution, as described in the meeting’s agenda. Anderson joined the closed session, city council members confirmed after the meeting.
Timmer’s resolution would seek four declarations from the Lynchburg Circuit Court, according to a draft of the resolution that Timmer provided to Cardinal News. Those declarations include clarifications on the registrar’s duties, the temporary Tazewell injunction and the constitution’s 90-day blackout window — and how they all work together.
The resolution also invites the registrar to join as a party in the petition for declaratory judgment and asks for “temporary injunctive relief, if necessary, to preserve the status quo and prevent the City or its officials from taking actions that could violate the Tazewell Temporary Restraining Order or expose them to liability.”
